August 11, 2005

Update: No more pain in the neck

Awhile back I reported that I was down and out with a carotid dissection, a tear in my lower common coratid artery. See "A Wee Pain in the Neck," for further details.

It seems, from the emails I've been getting, that I've been a bit remiss in letting everyone know how I've been progressing.

Here's what happened last week when I went back to the doctor:

Basically, I got the "all clear" signal from my cardiac surgeon.

"There's not a lot of literature on your condition," the doctor told me while checking my vitals.

I know, I know. While I was down, I rambled the Net and found little. Well, I did read just enough to scare me. And most of what I learned wasn't very helpful. Did you know that you should never use a handheld electric massager on your thoat? The other common way this occurs is when a seat belt causes the injury in a car wreck.

What caused my artery to spring a leak? No one knows. However, my doctor says that the odds of this occuring again are the same as getting stuck twice by lightning.

"I would have expected to see a least a little unhealed tear," said the Doc. "Maybe some scarring, but you are completely healed."

Yippee!

So now that I'm feeling "re-born," as it were, I'm out aggressively pursuing new business. Which is pretty much the reason why I've been so lax in posting lately.

I apologize for not keeping everyone in the loop. And thank you all for all the support you've shown through out this whole ordeal.

You're lucky. The same thing happened to me but after 6 days in the hospital, numerous tests including an arterialgram, and now 5 months later, my Carotid is still almost completely blocked. Still hopeing for recanalization though. I am lucky in that they say my other arteries are handling all the blood flow to my brain but I have to stay on anticoagulants.

Wow! I wish you all the luck in the world. Did your doctors give you any idea of what may have caused this? Mine were completely baffled. In fact, all the cardiac care docs kept dropping by to visit me like I was some sort of circus freak.